Samuel Corner (far right) and other Palestine Action activists Jordan Devlin, Leona Kamio, Charlotte Head, Fatema Rajwani and Zoe Rogers. (Used under clause 27a of the Israeli copyright law; taken from social media)

Four UK pro-Palestinian activists jailed for violent raid on Israeli defense factory

Judge hands out years-long sentences as he highlights ‘terrorist connection’ in 2024 attack on Elbit, during which one activist fractured a policewoman’s spine with a sledgehammer

by · The Times of Israel

Four British pro-Palestinian activists were sentenced on Friday to years in prison over a 2024 raid on a factory operated by Israeli defense firm Elbit that caused more than $1 million in damage, with the judge giving longer terms after determining a “terrorism connection.”

Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, were members of the since-banned group Palestine Action, which organized the assault on the Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol, in southwest England.

They were convicted of criminal damage at Woolwich Crown Court in May, while Corner, who prosecutors said hit a police officer with a sledgehammer and fractured her spine, was found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm. Corner was given the lengthiest jail term of the four.

The conviction followed a retrial, after a different jury in February cleared the six of aggravated burglary but failed to reach verdicts regarding criminal damage and some other charges.

Wearing red boilersuits, the four activists damaged computers, drones and other equipment, before clashing with security guards and police who tried to stop them in the August 2024 raid. The group said their aim was to “dismantle drones and weaponry” they believed would be used to kill people, particularly in the Gaza Strip.

Prosecutors said the incident should be treated as having a terrorism connection and the four should be sentenced accordingly with harsher punishments, drawing condemnation from human rights groups and high-profile supporters.

Judge Jeremy Johnson said it was an “aggravating factor that the offending had a terrorist connection,” but added that their previous good character was a substantial mitigating factor.

He sentenced Corner to seven years and eight months in total for the two convictions, after finding he used “extreme and gratuitous” force and that his autism didn’t explain why he swung the sledgehammer.

Bodycam footage from August 6, 2024, shows an officer aiming a taser gun at an intruder at Elbit UK’s site in Bristol, England, after the intruder struck a police officer with a sledgehammer. (Screen capture: Channel 4)

Kamio and Head were sentenced to five years, while Rajwani was sentenced to four years and eight months for the criminal damage. They will all spend another year on parole after release.

Two more activists accused ot taking part in the raid, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin, were acquitted of criminal damage.

Elbit Systems is a defense technology company with around 20,000 staff and revenues of $2 billion, according to the firm’s website.

“Each defendant agreed to take part in high-level actions, and did so with the shared aim of shutting down Elbit and ending what they regarded as British complicity in Israeli war crimes,” Johnson said. “The action was designed to influence the UK government and also to intimidate a section of the public, and was for the purpose of advancing an ideological or political cause.”

The injured policewoman, Sgt. Kate Evans told the court she was still recovering from her injuries and was targeted with nasty emails suggesting she worked for “the Zionist occupation of Britain.”

“The emotional impact of this incident has been profound and ongoing,” she said. “I experience disturbed sleep, often waking in a panicked state or after distressing dreams.”

About 500 protesters gathered outside the court on Friday in support of the four activists, leading to the arrests of 107 showing support for Palestine Action, police said.

Protesters are detained by police outside Woolwich Crown Court, London, during a hearing where Palestine Action activists were due to be sentenced over a break-in at the UK base of an Israel-based defense firm, Elbit Systems site, in London, Friday, June 12, 2026. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

Friday’s ruling comes just before the High Court is due to rule on Monday on the government’s appeal against the lifting of a ban on Palestine Action.

The assault on the Bristol factory in 2024 was one of the events that led the government last year to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organization. The ban under the 2000 Terrorism Act, which went into force on July 5 last year, made membership of or support for the direct action group a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Since then some 3,000 people have been arrested at rallies and demonstrations.

Protesters gather to call for the lifting of the ban on the Palestine Action group during a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London on April 11, 2026 (CARLOS JASSO / AFP)

After Palestine Action challenged the ban, the High Court in London ruled in February that the decision was “disproportionate,” had a “very significant” impact on human rights and should be lifted.

The government has appealed against that ruling, with the judgment due on Monday.